A diagnostician of disease studying (mal)functioning of cellular organisms can employ a broad range of inroads into the organism to obtain relevant information as to the various aspects of the malfunctioning. These inroads vary widely, examples of which include detecting relative ratios of kidney stones by studying urinary samples obtained from various patients, probing for the presence or absence of intestinal ulcers via endoscopy, scanning for detectable tumors by nuclear magnetic resonance (“NMR”), detecting diabetes by testing for insulin levels and/or glucose concentration in blood plasma, determining cancer proneness by determining transcriptional levels of oncogenes, and so on.
Currently, the detection of disease or malfunctioning (or vice versa, of health and proper functioning) of higher organisms, such as animals and plants, relies on testing samples obtained from these organisms and studying these samples in a laboratory. Often, when a fruitful method capable of determining, identifying or detecting (aspects of) a disease or malfunctioning of an organism has been found, it is also generally useful in testing or screening of compounds or methods for treatment of (aspects of) the disease or malfunctioning or useful in testing or screening for compounds or methods involved in causing (aspects of) the disease or malfunctioning. By using the same or similar methods used in diagnosis, it is generally possible to assess the usefulness of such candidate compounds or methods in treating and/or causing the disease or malfunctioning in question. Clearly, life science laboratories are always in the need of other inroads into organisms to obtain yet more information relating to disease or malfunctioning and to compounds and methods related to causing and/or treating the disease or malfunctioning.